CamelBak brand water bottles hang on display at an outdoor supply store

How Safe Is BPA-Free Plastic?

With BPA gone from many plastic products, researchers are concerned about other environmental chemicals, which might cause reproductive harm.
The 24th U.S. Infantry at drill, Camp Walker, Philippine Islands, c. 1902

The Jim Crow Army in the Philippine-American War

Some African American soldiers of the conflict thought fighting against fellow people of color was unjust.
Parchman Penal Farm. Male prisoners hoeing in a field, 1911

Pandemics, Prison Violence, and Problem Drinking

Well-researched stories from The Conversation, The Washington Post, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
Pop art style comics panel angry woman grinding teeth with speech bubble and swear words symbols

The Theory of Cuss Word Relativity

Which words are considered taboo varies by place and time, scholars find.
Native Hawaiian schoolchildren around 1900.

How Public Schools “Americanized” Hawai‘i

Colonial education administrators recruited teachers from the mainland, but soon realized another strategy was in order.
A puffin carrying tree branches in it's mouth

Puffins Seen Using Tools, Breaking Dumb-Puffin Stereotypes

Reputed to be a less intelligent bird species, puffins have been observed scratching themselves with sticks.
Zodiac Signs

Why Your Zodiac Sign Is Probably Wrong

The science of astronomy is at odds with the basic organizing principle in astrology: the dates of the zodiac.
World map showing the zoogeographical regions by Alfred Russel Wallace

The 1876 Map of the World’s Ecozones That Still Holds Up

The 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace created a visualization that tied different species to specific regions of the world.
Black and white drawing of settlers in South Carolina in 1670

How Conservation Is Shaped by Settler Colonialism

The legal concept of "terra nullius"—meaning "no one's land"—influenced European colonialism and continues to shape the practice of conservation.
Lloyd Corrigan (left) and José Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac

McCarthyism at the Oscars

As José Ferrer was being handed his Oscar—making him the first Latino actor to win—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.